


Catastrophe

by naye



Category: One Piece
Genre: 1000-3000 words, Brotherhood, Childhood, D Brothers, Fluff, Gen, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-09-10
Updated: 2009-09-10
Packaged: 2017-10-03 13:34:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/naye/pseuds/naye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The day his little brother fell off a cliff taught Ace a lot of things.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Catastrophe

**Author's Note:**

> This look at Tiny!Ace and Tinier!Luffy has a couple of vague spoilers for manga chapter 551 and thereabouts.
> 
> Thanks to Eiliem for the beta, and to her and Shayera both for being ~~a terrible influence on me~~ wonderful cheerleaders!

The day Luffy fell off a cliff taught Ace a lot of things. One of them was that it was a bad idea to spar on top of cliffs. Another was that Luffy really needed to work on his balance. A third thing was that when Luffy bounced down from a great height, he bounced _far_.

Ace started running before he even lost sight of Luffy's head, but was totally winded by the time he scrambled his way over to where he could see where Luffy landed - and that's when he realized that Luffy had managed to bounce all the way past the edge of the cliffs. Past the edge of the cliff and _into the sea_.

Panic - more panic than usual - was another thing he got very well acquainted with on that day. Drowning had _not_ been part of the day's agenda - that's why Ace had picked cliffs away from the sea. Away from the sea, damn it, which meant now he was away from the sea, too. It took him far too many thundering heartbeats to get _to_ the sea, to where he could leap in after his brother.

After that it only took a few, practiced strokes to drag Luffy back to the surface. The waves were attempting to grab Luffy from him, but Ace was having none of that. He gripped Luffy tight, using both hands, and the vengeful waves took the opportunity to whirl them both under. For a moment, Ace was blinded by salt, and stars swum in his vision from a glancing blow to the head, and there was no up or down, only _no air_ and panic. Then he felt one of his kicks connect and - there! Rock, covered in barnacles, skinning his hands and knees as he he braced against the rough surface to shove Luffy above the water line.

He clambered after himself, hauling himself up until he was level with Luffy, hands clenched in his brother's soaked t-shirt, ready to - to shake him awake, beat him, _anything_.

Luffy chose that moment to cough a lungful of really nasty seawater in Ace's face.

Ace let go, and fell back on the damp rock.

"Yuck!" Luffy exclaimed, and then "Oooh!".

Ace, breath back in his lungs and heart more or less out of his throat, raised his head to glare. "Oooh?" he asked accusingly.

"Look, Ace! I found a fish!" Luffy laughed, his hands cupped around a twitching little silvery shape.

"You found a --" Ace growled. Luffy shouldn't be finding fish, because fish lived in the _ocean_, and Luffy didn't. Live. If he went in the ocean. "Whatever."

Luffy was poking his fish. "It looks yummy!"

Ace slapped him on the back of his rubber-filled head, allowing the fish a distraction in which to wriggle free and flee back into the sea.

"You're not eating that!"

"But it was a fish!" Luffy pouted a little. "I found it."

"It was tiny! And you're not allowed to eat things you find!" Idiot. He _knew_ that was the rule - wisely instigated by Dadan a mere handful of days after Gramps brought them the kid.

Luffy pouted some more. He didn't _like_ the rule. He liked to _eat_.

An energetic wave crashed against the rock they were on, spraying them both with tiny droplets. Ace promptly stood up, dripping, casting a suspicious eye on the sea innocently edging closer to his brother. "Come on, let's go."

Luffy had been engrossed in watching the sea with its tantalizing silver glimpses of fish, but he nodded, and reached up to adjust -- his hat.

_Oh_.

Ace realized what had happened at the same time Luffy's face twisted with consternation as his hands closed on the soggy straw.

The rocks. The water and the rocks and those damned barnacles... Luffy pulled it off his head, holding it in front of him like he couldn't believe what he was seeing. The brim of the hat was rent, the edges gaping like an open wound.

"My hat." Luffy's voice was quiet, but the depth of despair in it hit Ace like a scream.

"It's okay..." Ace tried, and not knowing what else to do, he reached out to pat Luffy on the head the way he would have a soaked, sad-looking puppy.

Luffy didn't move. "Shanks," he said, and now his voice was choking up, _oh shit_. "It was his treasure and he gave it to me and --"

"I know, I know!" Of course Ace knew - anyone who had spent more than five minutes with Luffy would know. If Gramps had been kind enough to leave an instruction manual along with the kid, item #2 would have been _Do not touch the hat_.

But there was no instruction manual (damn it), and now Luffy was doing something totally unexpected (again), and Ace looked around wildly for some idea of what to do - _any_ idea.

Luffy's lower lip had started trembling.

The cliffs were looking back at Ace, very hard and empty and possibly a little gleeful, but totally unhelpful. Ace turned his attention back to the sad, mangled thing in Luffy's hands - not looking at Luffy's face, _definitely_ not looking at the way the snot had started running from his little nose.

Crap. "I'll fix it for you!" Ace blurted.

It was like flipping a switch. Luffy bounced forward (Ace grabbed his arm automatically, because - damn it, wet rock, _sea_), looking up at him with wide eyes shining. "You will?"

"Of course I will!" Ace said, with all the confidence he didn't feel.

"Oh. Okay!" Luffy laughed, relieved. "Yay! Because I promised I'd give it back to Shanks, one day when I'm Pirate King, and..."

Ace nodded, leading the way back up the cliffs and away from the water. He was nodding, but not exactly listening, because - he'd fix it? How could he fix it? He would _have_ to fix it now - he'd given his word, and Luffy trusted him, and he was going to take care of it but - _how_?

Luffy's happy chattering about everything and nothing drowned out the sound of waves fading behind them, and every step brought them closer to home, which was good, because Ace really had learned all the new things he could handle in one day, and it was getting to be time for supper.

Which they couldn't go to like this. Not with the wet clothes and the scratches and the blood - no, that was never a great hit with adults. So he snuck them in the back way, got them into dry clothes, stuck a couple of fresh band-aids on the worst of their cuts (nobody would notice an extra few), and made sure they both washed their hands before he allowed Luffy to dart off to be fed.

To his surprise, Luffy paused. Nothing ever kept Luffy from food.

But before he could ask what the problem was, Luffy rushed up to him. "Here!" he said, handing Ace the slightly less soaked, but still pitifully torn hat. "You'll fix it, right?" he added, smiling broadly.

"Sure," Ace said, but Luffy was already in motion again.

"Fooooood!"

Ace looked down at the straw hat.

"Shanks couldn't have given you a little more _solid_ treasure? What's wrong with--" Ace was going to say _a sword or something_, but a terrifying image of Luffy with sharp objects flashed before him. Maybe Shanks had been right to give the little terror something harmless.

But - _straw_. Not the hardiest of materials, and now the treasure was broken. And Ace was going to fix it. Somehow.

He could always ask Dadan, of course, but - no. He had said that _he_ would fix it. Luffy trusted him. Trusted him with his treasure. Going to Dadan - it wouldn't be the same.

With a sigh, Ace resigned himself to the fact that he wasn't finished learning for the day. And he'd have to learn quickly, too, because it wouldn't do to keep Luffy waiting.

Failure, of course, was not an option. Luffy _would_ get his hat back, as good as new, and Dadan would never know (or ask how it had gotten torn in the first place).

After supper, Luffy went to sleep with no fuss at all, apparently trusting Ace to single-handedly avert a catastrophic, hatless reunion with Shanks.

Ace spent the night in a corner of their room, working by lamplight, straining his eyes and pricking his fingers and trying not to curse too loud in case Dadan came in to see what was wrong.

It was a very long night, and by the end of it his bed simply seemed too far away. The wall was nice and soft, wasn't it? He placed the hat on his knees, and closed his eyes.

When he woke up, the hat was on Luffy's head, and Luffy's arms were around his neck.

"Bwuh?" Ace asked, not really ready to connect all the dots before breakfast. Breakfast and naps.

"Ace, thank you!" Luffy beamed at him from about half an inch away, everything about the rubber boy's very loud, very snug gratitude overwhelming so early in the morning.

"You're welcome _getoff_," Ace said, pushing at Luffy's face with the one hand he'd managed to wriggle free.

Ace was saved by Dadan's call of _Breakfast!_, which was all Luffy needed to peel off of Ace and thunder into the kitchen. Ace got up, stretched, and followed Luffy. His smarting fingers and aching eyes would soon be forgotten, and he told himself that, well. He definitely hadn't done it all just for the sake of that idiot little brother. Not at all. This knowledge of hats would _totally_ be a useful skill one of these days, he just knew it.

And then he laughed, because really - who was he fooling?


End file.
